Pianist’s ‘Soul Quest’ leads to River Raisin Jazz Festival

Keiko Matsui spotted a painting, “Black Lion,” in a Georgia restaurant during an Eastern European tour. She was captivated by the majestic animal’s strength and mystified by the haunting melancholy in his eyes.

“This painting was made by Niko Pirosmani, who is a very popular Georgian painter. And when I met this painting, I fell in love,” the pianist recalled. “At the same time, I heard about a very sad love story of this painter, and I felt his loneliness, passion and romanticism. Those things inspired me to make this song.”

Keiko Matsui photo from Career Artist Management

With sparkling, soaring key work, Matsui restores the big cat’s roar.

“Black Lion” was the first single from the songwriter’s 2013 disc, “Soul Quest.”

“When I compose, I don’t think anything. I just sit in front of the piano waiting to hear something from above,” Matsui said during a call from Tokyo. “And sometimes nature, like the moon, ocean or scenery from my trip, inspires me.”

Hearing from fans about life struggles also motivates the artist.

“Everybody has hard times sometimes,” she said. “I notice that my music is very connected and deeply touching to individuals’ lives, so I really feel honored and I feel this is my mission to dedicate my melodies.”

Matsui sat down on the piano bench for lessons at age 5 in her native Japan. Growing up, she tuned in everything.

“I was listening to many different genres, sometimes movie soundtracks, sometimes Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Bob James and Sting,” she said. “And very naturally I started writing my own music. So that’s why my compositions have many different elements — sometimes classical, sometimes rock, sometimes jazz.”

She released her U.S. debut, “A Drop of Water,” in 1987. With 2001’s “Deep Blue,” Matsui became the first Japanese artist to top the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart.

Matsui will play the River Raisin Jazz Festival at 5:45 p.m. Aug. 9 at St. Mary’s Park in Monroe. Saxophonist and flutist Jackiem Joyner will join her at the free event.

“In this era, you can download music or you can have a CD and everything technically. But at the concert, facing each other and sharing this same space and air is the most important thing,” the composer said. “For me, music is like a prayer, and every time I really feel fortunate to have this magical time with the audience.”

Bobby Caldwell to headline River Raisin Jazz Festival

Bobby Caldwell ups the ante on his 2012 disc, “House of Cards.” On the cover, he’s sporting that familiar fedora and holding five playing cards.

Is poker his game?

“Well, that’s a leading question,” the singer-songwriter wagered and laughed. “I really like imagery, so painting a picture of a backroom in some bar with people playing poker, I tried to spin that lyrically.”

Caldwell

He’s been dealing up music since he hit the jackpot with his 1978 self-titled debut. But it wasn’t without some high-stakes drama.

“After eight to 10 months of punishing myself, I delivered a record and ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’ was not on the album. The record label, TK Records, they were enthralled with the record; they loved it, but they didn’t feel that I had the breakout cut,” Caldwell said.

“And so after an arduous journey, it was like, ‘Quick, go back in; we don’t think you have your lead single.’ And I went back into the studio. Jeez, it kind of took place really quickly and I gave it very little thought, and at the end of the day, this is the song that broke the record.”

“What You Won’t Do For Love” hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. That sultry, smoldering track with the smooth bass groove has been covered by Boyz II Men and Go West, and has been sampled by more than 100 artists, including Mary J. Blige, Gym Class Heroes, 2Pac and Aaliyah.

“People look at that song and they go, ‘Oh my God, how brilliant! How incredible!’ And it wasn’t really. It was just something that happened, spur of the moment,” Caldwell said during a call from his New Jersey home.

When it came to Caldwell’s race, TK Records wanted to bluff; early album covers featured colorful illustrations.

“I had very little say in that. This was a label that basically their platform was R&B, so they had a lot of black artists on the label, huge sales,” he said. “And when I came along, I guess they thought, OK, we have our like Boz Scaggs or whatever. They decided, ‘OK, we don’t want to disclose his color,’ so that’s how it played out. So the silhouette became heavily in play.”

The shuffle didn’t faze Caldwell or his fans.

“Why I was adopted as a blue-eyed soul artist — wow, it’s just anybody’s guess,” he said. “All I can tell you is that I cut my teeth on the stuff that I used to buy — from Philadelphia, Motown, Stax Records, Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Spinners — all heavily influenced me.”

Caldwell started to play big-band music in the mid-1990s.

“My home life as a child, it was like Ella Fitzgerald-Frank Sinatra headquarters, so I was exposed to all that incredible and wonderful music. It got under my skin and like so many other artists — Natalie Cole, Michael Bublé, Rod Stewart — they all in some respect carry the torch for the American songbook, as do I; it’s something that should be kept alive.

Caldwell will headline the 12th annual River Raisin Jazz Festival at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at St. Mary’s Park, Monroe. The event is free.

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In Concert

Legendary trumpeter to headline River Raisin Jazz Festival

“He played for me a Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie record. Oh my goodness, I went crazy, saying, ‘Wow! What is this? Man, what are those people playing? That’s so difficult! I love it! I want to learn how to play that!’

“And then I start with that and I’m still trying to figure out what those people were playing,” the renowned trumpet player said.

In 1977, Sandoval had a chance to meet his idol when Gillespie visited his home country of Cuba. But he didn’t tell the trumpeter he was also a musician right away.

“I drove him all over the city for the whole day. Then in the evening, we got a jam session,” Sandoval recalled. “When he gets to the place, I was warming up on stage and he saw me with a trumpet, and he opened his eyes and said, ‘What the heck’s my driver doing with a trumpet?’ And somebody said, ‘No, no, no! He’s the guy here in Cuba!’”

Arturo Sandoval

With the help of Gillespie, Sandoval soon became one of the great horn players of the world.

“[Gillespie] really helped me a lot. He was so good to me since we met. He gave me so many opportunities over so many years,” he said.

Sandoval was touring with Gillespie in Spain in 1990 when he and his family were granted political asylum by the United States.

“Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)” is the title of Sandoval’s disc released in May.

“[It’s] a group of tunes I have been playing that I had the honor and privilege to play with [Gillespie] many times when he was alive. It was a lot of fun doing the record; this is the kind of material that I really love,” the jazzman said.

“The most important thing he taught me was love music,” Sandoval said. “That was really the key motivation for me was how much he loved music and how much he really enjoyed talking and playing and trying to learn things about music.”

One of his father’s loves inspired his new CD, “Tango — Como Yo Te Siento,” released in July.

“I remember my father — my dear father, he’s in heaven — he liked tango music very much, and he never showed any kind of interest in music in general,” Sandoval said during a call from his home near Los Angeles.

“But when you put in a good tango, he loved it. He knew the lyrics and the melodies of every tango. And in certain ways, this is a tribute as well to my dear father.”

The Grammy Award winner will headline the River Raisin Jazz Festival at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 12 at St. Mary’s Park in Monroe. The event is free.

“At all my gigs, I play percussion and I sing a couple tunes, and I play piano and play keyboard, and I dance a little bit, and I tell the story — I have fun on stage,” Sandoval said. “My intention, my goal, is to let the people have fun too.”

Lorber to play Monroe Jazz Festival

Growing up in Philadelphia, Jeff Lorber remembers drifting off to sleep listening to his mother playing Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” on the piano.

“It was just so nice to go to bed and hear someone playing this beautiful music,” he said. “I had two older sisters who were taking piano lessons; the piano was sort of the center of the house, so as soon as I got big enough I wanted to join in and have some of the fun that everybody was having.”

Lorber

These days, he’s finding fun reviving the Jeff Lorber Fusion.

“Everybody we talked to seemed to think it was a great idea to bring the [band] name back and bring back the style of music that’s a little more jazzy, more up-tempo and exciting and funky,” he said.

The keyboardist returned to his roots, releasing “Now Is the Time” in 2010 under the Jeff Lorber Fusion name, which he used with his 1977 debut disc. The group released five albums before he went solo in 1982.

“[‘Now Is the Time’] was fairly successful; sales were good, and we were nominated for a Grammy and that was really nice,” Lorber said.

He said the fusion project will continue with a new disc, “Galaxy,” to be released, he hopes, this year. The Jeff Lorber Fusion will play the River Raisin Jazz Festival at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 14 at St. Mary’s Park in Monroe.

The event is free.

During a call to Toledo Free Press Star from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Lorber talked about who will take the stage with him at the festival.

“I have Eric Marienthal on the saxophone who is very well-known for his long career as a solo artist and also playing with Chick Corea. He also was featured on ‘Now Is the Time,’” Lorber said.

“I’ve got an amazing bass player that I think people are really going to be excited to see; his name is Anthony Crawford. He’s an incredible virtuoso on the bass. I’ve never seen anyone like this before,” he said. “On drums, I’ve got this terrific musician from New York, Lionel Cordew.

“I really like the quartet format because it creates a lot of space and a lot of room for freedom within that structure,” Lorber said.

“The art of jazz improvisation is a real interesting high-wire act. You just put yourself at the mercy of the moment and see what you can come up with, just try to improvise something great, and I think people really enjoy that. They feel that and feel that they’re part of the experience.”